“You know, sister? You were right about one thing. I do need a few more years of training in order to attempt this. If I was alone, that’s probably what I would’ve done.”

Aurelia’s eyes slightly brightened.

“Then…?”

However, the blonde was quick to cut off her hopeful thoughts.

“Nope. Since you’re here, we’re doing this now.”

Grabbing her by the wrist, he placed two fingers on his forehead.

“Let’s go, sister!”

Aurelia could only sigh in defeat.

“Haaa…”

Tswii!

.

|DxD|

.

Over a kilometre away from buildings of the time chamber, Igor and Aurelia were in a relatively calm clearing. With the one kilometre mark having been passed, the gravity had gradually doubled to twice of Earth’s normal gravity. But to both these behemoths, a simple 2x gravity was no different from normal gravity.

Right now, the blonde was hovering midair with his legs crossed. His arms were clasped together in meditation, his eyes closed as he focused on channeling his ki. Over a minute had passed since he entered this state, leaving Aurelia to stand alone in silence.

The silverette was having second thoughts about all of this, but it was already too late to stop it.

[Since I am here, I will just have to watch and make sure he stays safe.]

She focused her senses entirely on him, monitoring his body for even the slightest of changes. She didn’t use her mana to scan his body for fear of interrupting him, but monitoring his heart rate, his bloodflow, his breathing, brain activity, and other vital functions was still manageable for her.

Through a combination of feeling, listening, smelling, and seeing, she was able to monitor Igor’s current state much more accurately than any hospital equipment could hope for.

[Please succeed, Igor.]

As it is, she could only stand on the side and hope for him to succeed. It irked her that he was so brash about something that clearly wasn’t urgent. But, she couldn’t deny that she admired that part of him.

As for the blonde, he was focused entirely on himself. This was a critical moment for him and he wanted to make sure that there would absolutely be no mishaps. By channeling his ki throughout his body in gradually increasing levels of intensity, he was priming his bones and muscles for the power that came with the Kaioken x100.

As time went on, a white sheen emanated from his body, an indicator that his ki had successfully penetrated from his bones all the way through his skin. Now, it was time to kick it up a bit.

[Kaioken.]

su su su su su su

The white sheen around his body slowly turned into a red mist that clung tightly around him. Using the Kaioken x2, he used his demi-ki to prime his muscles like he did with his normal ki. If the first time he did this was the same as cleaning a wall for painting, then this time, he was applying the primer.

Although Kaioken x2 was a small multiplier, it was enough. There was no need to strain his body more than necessary. Another minute passed and slowly, the red mist around him retracted into his body as he cancelled the Kaioken.

“Are you done, Igor.”

“Yep. All done.”

Opening his eyes, he landed on the ground and looked at Aurelia with a smile.

“Before I start, sister, I want to explain something to you so that you can have some peace of mind.”

It occurred to him that by explaining his thought process to his sister, he may be able to ease her concerns, especially since…

“I know you don’t trust me much in terms of…”

He prodded the side of his head with a finger.

“...you know? And rightfully so.”

“?!”

Aurelia wanted to retort but was cut off before she could.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Don’t try to sugarcoat things, sister. I know it. You know it. Everyone knows it. I don’t have much knowledge nor do I want to obtain more knowledge. I have better things to do than sit and read a book about some boring theory.”

“...”

*Vein Bulge*

Aurelia was sure that he was referencing the time she tried to teach him how to do seals. He barely lasted thirty minutes before he vanished from her sight when she wasn’t looking. But the past was the past and she would (try to) let it go. It wasn’t like seals and inscriptions were her favourite or anything.

Fortunately for the blonde, he didn’t stay on the issue for long.

“But if there’s anything I have knowledge of, it’s anything related to my training. I’ve been using the Kaioken for more than a decade now and I’ve come to know certain things about it. It is a stable power-multiplying technique that only has its limits imposed by one’s own body. I trained for years and eventually, I could reach Kaioken x50. But that was my limit back then. If I tried to ascend any further, my body would give out.”

He was steadily reaching a point.

“As much as I hate to say it, it should’ve been impossible for me to reach Kaioken x100. At most, my limit should’ve been sixty even with the help of nature energy boosting my body’s physique. So I sat down and thought about this. How? Why? I had to figure it out, sister. How did I gain that much power without my body exploding? How is it that on both the times I accessed this power, all I had to suffer was a measly twenty years of lifespan in the first and a month of bed rest in the second. Because if we’re going by what I know about the Kaioken, I shouldn’t even have a body to speak of. I quite literally, should’ve exploded, sister.”

“...”

Aurelia’s face darkened.

“And despite knowing that, you went ahead and tried doing it for a second time?”

“...”

The blonde chuckled nervously.

“Hehehe…I’m here, aren’t I…?”

“...”

*Vein Bul-*

“Anyway, I figured that since it was impossible, there must be another reason as to why I was able to ascend. So I thought about it and…huh. How do I explain this?”

He stroked his chin as he looked down in contemplation.

“Ah! Wait here, sister. It’s better if I show you instead.”

Without waiting for her approval, he took off.

Su!

[...does he really think I’ll let it go-]

Su!

Barely a second passed before he appeared again with a book in his hand.

“I have it here, sister. The Book of the Gods.”

Standing next to her, Igor started paging rapidly through the book.

“I want to show you how this holy book helped me think from a different perspective.”

“...”

Aurelia assumed the book would have some significance. But her hopes were dashed when she recognised that it was a manga.

“Igor. A manga-”

“Look sister. You know Goku, right? He’s this super powerful warrior who fights strong guys and saves the world and stuff. Anyway, there was this fight he had with this villain named Frieza on a planet called Namek.”

He continued paging until he reached the panels where Goku was fighting against Frieza.

“You see here? Goku is using his Kaioken against Frieza and at this point here, he was able to use times-twenty. But notice how tired he is. The use of the Kaioken is straining him.”

He then began paging over rapidly again until he reached the panels where Krillin had just been killed by Frieza.

“Now look here, sister. Goku had just lost his best friend to Frieza and now, he’s about to transform.”

He then paged over slowly, showing Aurelia the scenes of Goku’s rage that fueled his power until he finally transformed.

“See here? He’s now what is called, a Super Saiyan. It’s a transformation that people of the Saiyan race have.”

He then flipped the pages over again to where Goku was dominating Frieza.

“Ignore this part where he’s winning. Notice how he doesn’t look tired? It was revealed that this transformation gives him a fifty-times boost in his power.”

He then promptly closed the book and looked Aurelia in the eye.

“But he could barely handle Kaioken x20. You see where I’m going with this, sister?”

“...”

Aurelia could see exactly what Igor was implying, but couldn’t quite believe it.

“Igor. You are saying that Kaioken x100 is…”

“Yep. I’m almost one-hundred percent sure it’s a transformation, sister. Think about it. My hair turns red, my skin darkens, and my pupils vanish. That definitely sounds like a transformation to me. Although…the last two effects are more of a side effect from a weak body and a lack of control...”

Coughing to hide his embarrassment, he continued.

“My point is this, sister. Instead of thinking of Kaioken x100 as a simple multiplier, why don’t I treat it as a transformation? When I began to think of it as a state, a lot of things started making sense. Why was it that I needed anger to access it? Why was it that I was ‘forced’ to reach times-one-hundred? Why not eighty? Why not seventy? Because I can tell you now, sister. It’s like a rollercoaster when I ascend. I couldn’t control where I stop like I normally could. It was either times-hundred or nothing.”

Aurelia absorbed his words and theories in her head. While his way of explaining things was rather…novel, she did understand what he was trying to say.

“However, Igor. If it is indeed a transformation, why is it that you almost died when you tried last time?”

“Oh? That’s easy, Sister Aurelia. I also thought about that and I came to a conclusion. The reason for both attempts relate to the state of my body at the time. In my first attempt, I was more or less at my peak. With the help of nature energy, I smoothly ascended to times-one hundred from my base state. I’m still not sure about the lifespan issue, but that is either because of a side-effect of tainted nature energy, or something else that I don’t know of. Either way, my body was relatively fine aside from fatigue.”

He wasn’t sure if his lifespan was used to heal him, but he would find out in his third attempt.

“As for my second attempt, I had blundered it by going up to Kaioken x50 first. I further attempted to ascend to further multipliers, which only served in extracting my stamina and straining my body even further. Having already tired myself out, I still ascended and I was successful. But my body was too sapped of strength in order to properly handle this newfound power.”

In Igor’s head, it was the same as travelling slowly up an incline and instead of shifting to a lower gear, he instead shifted to a higher gear. Just like how the transmission would suffer damage, so did his body when he ascended to Kaioken x100 with a weakened body.

“I understand your point, Igor. So, this time, you will try to transform?”

“Yep. But I can’t just go into it willy-nilly. I have a process I have to go through before I succeed. It’s another theory I have, but I’d rather test it before I tell you, sister.”

He then placed the book in her hands and stepped away from her by a few metres.

“Just watch how I succeed, sister. You’ll have the glory of witnessing the first Super Human.”

.

AN

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If you’re interested in reading ahead, here’s the link: patreon.com/HolyGambler